---
title:  Querying
---

<!--
Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
(the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at

     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.
-->

<%=vars.product_name%> provides a SQL-like querying language called OQL that allows you to access data stored in <%=vars.product_name%> regions.

Since <%=vars.product_name%> regions are key-value stores where values can range from simple byte arrays to complex
nested objects, <%=vars.product_name%> uses a query syntax based on OQL (Object Query Language) to query region
data. OQL is very similar to SQL, but OQL allows you to query complex objects, object attributes,
and methods.

-   **[Querying FAQ and Examples](../../getting_started/querying_quick_reference.html)**

    This topic answers some frequently asked questions on querying functionality. It provides examples to help you get started with <%=vars.product_name%> querying.

-   **[Querying with OQL](query_basics.html)**

    This section provides a high-level introduction to <%=vars.product_name%> querying such as building a query string and describes query language features.

-   **[Advanced Querying](../query_additional/advanced_querying.html)**

    This section includes advanced querying topics such as using query indexes, using query bind parameters, querying partitioned regions and query debugging.

-   **[Working with Indexes](../query_index/query_index.html)**

    The <%=vars.product_name%> query engine supports indexing. An index can provide significant performance gains for query execution.

